Billy Lee Brammer (April 21, 1929 – February 11, 1978) was an author, journalist, and political staffer in Texas and Washington, D.C.. He is best known for his set of three linked novellas titled '' The Gay Place.''
Life
Brammer was born April 21, 1929, in Dallas, Texas, where he graduated from Sunset High School. He attended the University of North Texas (then called North Texas State College), where he met Nadine Ellen Cannon, and they married on April 22, 1950.
Brammer graduated in 1952 with a degree in journalism. After working briefly as a reporter for the ''Corpus Christi Caller-Times'', Brammer joined the '' American-Statesman'' (then called the ''Austin Statesman''), where he won a press award for excellence in writing in 1952. In 1954, he won the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Contest for a feature sports story written for the same paper.
In 1955, Brammer became an associate editor of the ''
Texas Observer
''The Texas Observer'' (also known as the ''Observer'') is an American magazine with a liberal political outlook. The ''Observer'' is published bimonthly by a 501(c)(3)''Texas Observer'', August 25, 1961 He attracted the attention of Texas Senator
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...
, who invited him to join his staff. While employed by Johnson in Washington, D.C., Brammer began working on '' The Gay Place'', his first and only published novel, which is composed of three related novellas: ''The Flea Circus'', ''Room Enough to Caper'', and ''Country Pleasures.'' He sold the book to
Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...
in 1959.
Brammer left Johnson's staff to work for the economist
Eliot Janeway
Eliot Janeway (January 1, 1913—February 8, 1993), born Eliot Jacobstein, was an American economist, journalist and author, widely quoted during his lifetime, whose career spanned seven decades. For a time his ideas gained some influence w ...
. ''Time'' hired Brammer in 1960 to cover civil rights issues from the magazine's Atlanta office. Brammer left that job in 1961 (the year of the publication of ''The Gay Place'') and never again held sustained employment. He began a sequel to ''The Gay Place'' titled "Fustian Days," but it never was completed. He was hired in 1973 as one of the first writers with
Texas Monthly
''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. Founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, ''Texas Monthly'' chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the Natura ...
.
Brammer had three children – Sidney Gail, Shelby Ellen, and William Raoul – with Nadine before they divorced in 1961. In 1963, Brammer married Dorothy Browne; they were divorced in 1969. Brammer died of a methamphetamine overdose on February 11, 1978.
References
Further reading
* Tracy Daugherty: ''Leaving The Gay Place : Billy Lee Brammer and the Great Society'', Austin : University of Texas Press
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